Orchid Societies

Updated: 17 Nov 08
Note: All external hyperlinks open in a new window

Introduction
Target Audience
Measures of Effectiveness
Society Membership Decline
Internet
Printed Material
Outdoor Exhibit
Indoor Exhibit
Public Events
Radio
Miscellaneous
Value Added
Reasons to Attend a Society Meeting
Further Reading
Conclusion

Recently I was selected to be the publicity chair for one of my orchid societies, the Orchid Society of Southern California (OSSC). I figured that before I spent my Sundays handing out flyers at the Huntington, it might be a good idea to brainstorm and write out various ideas, suggestions and talking points. It's a work in progress and was originally intended for the OSSC board. After additional development I decided to share it with our members and members of other orchid societies. So at times I’m addressing different audiences.

This document has two interconnected subjects...advertising and adding value. Spending time and money to advertise the society will attract more visitors but won’t guarantee that they will become members. Conversion rates need to be carefully monitored and society leaders should have a good understanding of why people stay and why people leave. What value does a society provide? Does the society offer more value then its members can provide on their own? In other words, is the whole greater than the sum of its parts?

Target Audience Top

Target audience refers to who the society advertises to. From my personal experience, it seems that plant enthusiasts already have common reference points…medium, watering frequency, light, pests, growing seasons…that make it easier for them to understand and meet the requirements of orchids. Basically, they already have the necessary foundation in place.

In addition to botanical gardens and nurseries, plant societies are a good place to find plant enthusiasts. Orchids are so diverse that there are many orchids that members of other plant societies can grow with no major culture modification. I suppose we can call these orchids… “Gateway Orchids”. For example, succulent people can easily grow many South African Eulophias…bromeliad people can easily grow many epiphytic orchids…native plant people can easily grow native orchids. Given such an easy transition, $100 dollars spent in plant enthusiast targeted advertising should result in more members than advertising to people who don’t know a dahlia from a dandelion.

Measures of Effectiveness Top

With any type of advertising campaign, it’s essential that Measures of Effectiveness (MOEs) be integrated into the campaign in order to track how successful the campaign is. Doing so will help societies identify and discontinue ineffective advertising campaigns that are wasting valuable society resources. Tracking the success of campaigns can be accomplished by having the membership chair ask visitors where they heard about the meeting. This information should be written down and given to the publicity chair. To help motivate people to mention where they heard about the society, incentives can be integrated into the ads. For example ads can say, “Mention this ad and receive 10 free raffle tickets”. In my opinion, the ultimate MOE will be seeing orchids growing on trees while walking around Southern Californian neighborhoods.

Internet advertising campaigns can easily be tracked by including a hyperlink to the society’s website. The webmaster can look at the web-statistics to see how many site visitors arrived from each site that contains a hyperlink to the society's website. For example, if you post an invitation on craigslist be sure to include a hyperlink to your society’s website.

This is a hyperlink: Orchid Society or Southern California
This is not a hyperlink: http://www.orchidssc.org/default.aspx

Society Membership Decline Top

In many cases, orchid society memberships are in decline. It’s not just orchid societies though…its societies in general. The decline is so widespread that it’s the subject of an entire book, Bowling Alone. It’s been forever since I read the book and darned if I can remember much of what was in it…but obviously, bowling leagues are in decline as well.

On thing that I remember thinking while reading the book was that, despite countless examples of declining participation in real life social networks…some of my friends on MySpace had virtual social networks that were growing at a rapid pace. My conclusion was that social networks weren’t declining…just transforming and adapting to advances in technology.

Before taking a look at how technology is transforming social networks, perhaps it might help to first establish whether younger folk are even interested in orchids. Just based on personal observation, I’ve noticed several younger folks actively shopping and purchasing orchids at shows and sales. It seems that at a glance, the age range of people purchasing orchids at sales does not reflect the age range of people at orchid societies. Having rather anecdotally established that there is still interest in orchids, we can return to advances in technology.

Growing orchids successfully requires a reasonable amount of information. Orchid books and other orchid growers are long standing sources of information. A relatively newer source of information is the internet.

As a member of several online orchid forums, I’ve found that it’s significantly easier, convenient, effective and completely free to post an orchid question on the orchid forums and promptly receive numerous answers from orchid enthusiasts all over the world. In cases where orchid forums also have chat rooms, answers can be nearly instantaneous. Not only is it easier to receive orchid information…it’s also considerably easier to share orchid information.

So if we were to say that orchid forums are stealing orchid enthusiasts away from orchid societies then it would stand to reason that there would be orchid forum members who live reasonably close to an orchid society but are not members of that society. To my knowledge, of the three societies that I am a member of and the three orchid forums that I regularly participate in, there are only a couple people who meet that criterion.

Just looking at forum participation does not count all the people who search for and find orchid information on the internet.

Internet Top

Society Website:When people want information on orchids they first turn to Google. On average, every month over 80,000 searches are conducted using phrases that contain the words 'orchid' and 'care'. While it’s impossible to calculate exactly how many of these people live close enough to join an orchid society, cumulatively speaking, there are probably quite a few. How many of these Google searches is the OSSC website capturing? Logically, the more searches that are captured, the more likely it is that these people seeking orchid information will see one of the orchid society's most important advertisements…the orchid society website.

It would be difficult to over-emphasize the importance of a society’s website. By whichever manner somebody finds an orchid society website, whether it’s by a Google search or by a society flier, they will draw conclusions about the quality of a society based on the quality of its website. A poor quality website reflects very poorly on a society. Given our current ‘Information on Demand” culture…a poor quality orchid society website can broadly be defined as one that does not help orchid enthusiasts find the information that they are looking for. A poor quality website will quickly be dismissed as irrelevant… meaning that the orchid society itself will also be dismissed as irrelevant.

At a very bare minimum, the society website should at least announce the topic and date of the upcoming meeting. If a topic sufficiently interests a web visitor, they might be able to overlook the glaring lack of useful information on the society's website and decide to attend the upcoming presentation. But more, rather than less, orchid information is preferable.

By having orchid information on an orchid society website, in addition to helping others learn more about orchids, two interrelated things are accomplished…1. Google searches are captured and 2. the orchid society demonstrates its relevance. Probably the most effective and efficient way to put orchid information on the orchid society website is the Web 2.0 way. Basically, it’s to create a structure that allows society members to post their orchid information on their society’s website. Orchid grow lists and orchid articles are two examples of member supplied orchid information.

A financial benefit of adding keyword catching content to the OSSC website is that doing so will increase traffic to the website. Increased traffic will mean that more people will purchase Amazon books through the OSSC Amazon affiliate program. Adding Google AdSense to the website will also help with revenue for the society.
Cost: Variable
Time: 12+ hours

Orchid Grow Lists:Orchid members should be able to utilize the society’s website to maintain a list of orchids that they currently grow. When I do a Google search for a specific orchid, it’s fairly frequent that orchid forums show up in the search results because a member of that forum posted a list of their orchids…one of which happened to be the orchid that I was searching for. The added benefit of enabling members to post their grow lists on the society’s website is that new society members will quickly (Information on Demand) know which members to talk with should they have a question about a specific orchid. It's been almost a year since I joined the OSSC and out of over 150 members, I partially know what two members grow (due to visits) and only one member has shared a written list of all the orchids that he grows.

One of our members brought it to my attention that a large majority of our society, himself included, do not maintain lists of orchids that they grow. Sharing information is so much more precise, effective and efficient when that information is written down. Hopefully by providing members with an online space designated specifically for orchid grow lists they will be motivated to start keeping track of their orchids. Once members are aware of what other members are growing, then orchid growing efforts can be coordinated, information shared and success multiplied. Currently, we are like ants that don't bother leaving chemical markers for other ants to follow.

This feature would be completely optional and in order to address any privacy concerns, usernames could be used instead of real names.
Cost: Variable
Time: 6+ hours

RSS/XML Feeds: Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a convenient way to bring new internet content to you instead of you having to frequently check a website to see if they have new content. It basically consolidates all the new information that you would like to know about.

For example, if I am looking for a specific Encyclia on ebay…instead of having to go to ebay every day to see if any new Encyclias have been listed, I just conduct a search for “Encyclia” on ebay and click on the Orange RSS link to subscribe to the search results. As soon as somebody lists a new Encyclia on ebay, that listing is sent to my feed reader. A feed reader is a free, web based site that consolidates and displays your feeds on a single web page.

Feeds function in a similar manner to e-mail newsletters but the information is sent as soon as it is added to a website and does not require people to submit their e-mail address. So as soon as a new presentation, article, announcement, etc. was posted to the OSSC website, people who subscribe to that feed would receive the information in their feed reader. Personally, I would love to subscribe to an orchid article feed...especially if the articles were specific to growing orchids in Southern California.

An internet savvy person of our society mentioned that very few members of our society even know what an RSS/XML feed is. This is no doubt true, but the primary purpose of creating the feed would be to attract younger, more internet savvy people to our society. Such people might find our society page and might not be interested in our upcoming presentation…but with a couple of clicks they can subscribe to our feed to have future presentation topics sent to their feed reader. Hopefully, one of the presentation topics will interest them enough to attend a meeting.

Cost: Variable
Time: 4+ hours

Flickr:Flickr is the most popular photo sharing website. Orchid society members should create an account, upload photos that they have taken of their orchids and tag each photo with the name of their orchid society. If society members already have a flickr account with photos of their orchids then they can go through and add their society's name to the photos.

Tagging your orchid photos with your orchid society's name will increase exposure for your orchid society. A group for the orchid society can be created as well. Currently, there are 6 groups for orchid societies on flickr. On each society's website should be a link to their group on flickr.
Cost: $0
Time: Depends on the quantity of photos

MySpace:MySpace is a popular social networking site where people can promote their interests. It was initially considered to be a website for “kids” but non-profits eventually realized it was a good way to recruit new members. There are currently hundreds of non-profit organizations on Myspace.

Once a MySpace profile is created, then OSSC members with Myspace profiles can display the OSSC profile avatar on their own page. Upcoming meetings can be announced via a bulletin system that sends notices to all friends of the OSSC. A group for the OSSC can be created which will provide a forum for group members to share information with each other.

Additionally, the various Myspace features (messaging, commenting, etc.) might facilitate communication between OSSC members and help them get to know each other faster.
Cost: $0
Time: 4+ hours to create profile, 15 mins/week to accept friend requests

Facebook:Facebook is pretty much the same thing as MySpace but created primarily for college students.
Cost: $0
Time: 4+ hours to create profile, 15 mins/week to accept friend requests

Craigslist: Craiglist is a recycler type website. Ads last for a week. People often sell their orchids on craigslist so as a result, many orchid hobbyists regularly check the farm and garden section on craigslist to see if there are any orchids for sale. Orchid societies should consider offering orchids for sale in the craigslist farm and garden section in order to hopefully capture the attention of these orchid hobbyists.
Cost: $0
Time: 20 minutes

Kijiji: Kijiji is very similar to craigslist.
Cost: $0
Time: 20 minutes

Youtube: Youtube is a popular video sharing website. The OSSC can produce several “How to” videos to post to Youtube. Some possible videos could be...“How to construct a shade shelter”, “How to mount an orchid”, “Identifying problems”, etc.
Cost: $0
Time: 12+ hours

Orchid Forums: While orchid societies seem to be collectively losing members, online orchid forums seem to be consistently gaining new members. Members of orchid societies should join various orchid forums to help provide additional exposure for their orchid society…in addition to all the other benefits of participating on an orchid forum.
Cost: $0
Time: 1 hour / week

Nearest Society:Most franchise chain stores have a central webpage that allows potential customers to find the store nearest them. Orchid societies should also have a central webpage that helps people find the society nearest to them. Every society website should have a prominent link to that page so that even if the person that finds that website doesn’t live close enough to join, they can easily find the society that's closest to them.
Cost: $0
Time: 12+ hour

Printed Material Top

Outdoor Orchid List: My primary recommendation for printed items is to print out and disseminate a flier / leaflet / pamphlet that contains a list of the orchids that OSSC members have successfully grown outdoors. A popular misconception is that all orchids require a greenhouse. While this is true of many orchids, there are 100s of species that can be successfully grown outdoors year around in our climate. If we can correct this popular misconception then hopefully more people will be interested in growing orchids and will consider joining an orchid society to learn more about them.

An outdoor grow list is something that more people are likely to take and keep and share with their friends…as opposed to just general flyers. The back page of the leaflet can contain a list of local orchid societies.

The outdoor list should also be published to the OSSC website. Here is a fairly decent example of an outdoor bromeliad list. Looking over the references for that list it seems that more articles have been written on the cold tolerances of bromeliads than have been written on the cold tolerances of orchids. The only southern California orchid society that I know of that has an outdoor orchid list on their website is the San Diego Orchid Society.

The leaflet can be disseminated at numerous locations…

Botanical gardens….The Huntington, The Arboretum, Descanso Gardens, etc
Other plant society meetings…the epiphyllum society, the fern society, the bromeliad society, etc. It stands to reason that if they are willing to place our leaflets at their meetings then we would be willing to return the favor
Nurseries...the other day I asked the general manager at the Armstrong Nursery on San Fernando road whether it would be possible to place a stack of flyers on the counter next to the cash register. He said it would be perfectly fine.
Orchid shows and fairs.

Cost: ??
Time: 3+hours to compile the list and design the leaflet

Orchid Articles:When an orchid society member writes an article, both the member and the society benefit.

Articles written by members can help establish the society as a good source of information. It demonstrates the society's relevance.
Articles on orchids can be submitted to local newspapers to help increase exposure for the society.
A good collection of articles will be a valuable resource for new members of the society.
Once enough articles have been submitted, they can be compiled into a book on orchid culture in Southern California.
Articles can be displayed on the society website where they will help increase traffic to the website…thus increasing the revenue from Amazon purchases and/or Google AdSense.
Writing about member responsibilities as say, hospitality chair, will help future hospitality chairs know what is expected of them. It helps with continuity.
Given all the benefits to the society...members who write orchid articles should receive numerous raffle tickets, free orchids and gift certificates to orchid nurseries. One forum, the OrchidBoard, holds article writing contests with big prizes for the winners.
Researching and writing an article on a topic will help members learn more about that topic.
Articles allow members to efficiently share information with each other.

Having enough articles to compile a book is not without precedent. I have around a dozen booklets and small books on orchid care that have been nearly all published by Australian orchid societies. Only one booklet was published by an American society...The Southern California Horticultural Society...which isn't even an orchid society. The title of the booklet they published was Outdoor Growing Orchids for the Greater Los Angeles Area. Members do not need to be experts to write articles on orchids...but hopefully they will become experts in the process of researching and writing orchid articles.

Here are a few possible topics that will hopefully spark some interest..

Potting/mounting orchids
Orchid pests
Building a shade shelter
Miniature orchids for bonsai trees
Watering systems for orchids
Epiphytic orchids of South Africa
Dendrobium speciosum
Mexican Laelias
Orchid people interviews
Orchid book reviews
Orchid show/fair reviews
Growing orchids outdoors
Documenting orchid trips
Conservation efforts

Cost: ??
Time: One month?

Local Newspapers:Not quite sure how many younger folk subscribe to newspapers… I know none of my friends do. In any case, there are numerous local newspapers that we can advertise in. Probably the best advertising method would be for OSSC members to write orchid related articles which would receive more attention than classified ads. We can also submit our upcoming meetings to the event sections of various newspapers.

Los Angeles Times Events
Cost: Free to post an event
Deadline: 3 weeks in advance to appear in print, 1 week in advance to appear online

LA Weekly Events
Cost: Free to post an event
Deadline: 3 weeks in advance to appear in print, 2 weeks in advance to appear online

Burbank Leader Events
Cost: Free to post an event
Deadline: 2 weeks before event
Contact: joyce.rudolph
Notes: Submit events both by e-mail and by website

Glendale News Press
Cost: Free to post an event
Deadline: 2 weeks before event

Pasadena Star News
Cost:?
Deadline:?
Notes: Must register to submit an event

The Los Angeles Independent
Cost: ?
Deadline: ?

Verdugo monthly Advertising
Cost: ?
Deadline: ?

Sun Community Newspaper
events
rates

OSSC Business Cards:Let’s say you’re at your local garden center waiting to check out. The person behind you starts up a conversation which you deftly steer towards orchids. You mention that you grow numerous orchids outdoors year around to which the person responds with surprise. Reaching into your pocket for a copy of the OSSC outdoor orchid leaflet, you realize much to your dismay that you gave into your last copy to that person you met at the Begonia society meeting. You don’t panic though because you fortunately have a few OSSC business cards left. The OSSC business cards should include our logo, website address and when and were we meet.
Cost: ?
Time: ?
Contact: ?

Orchid Photo Calendars:The orchidboard creates a cafepress calendar using photos submitted by their members. For additional information on some of the costs involved you can check out this webpage.

Advertise in AOS magazine:In my opinion, people who subscribe to orchid magazines are usually aware of local orchid societies. Advertising to them would be like preaching to the choir. There are exceptions though…my Rhipsalis friend showed me some old Orchid magazine issues he found. Not sure whether there are enough exceptions to warrant the cost. In any case, here’s an e-mail that our society received…

“ADVERTISE YOUR UPCOMING SHOW, AOS Affiliated Societies receive 50% off advertising rates. Now's your chance to sparkle in Orchids magazine. As a way of saying thank you to our affiliated societies and organizations that loyally support the AOS, we are now offering an opportunity to advertise for less. Advertise your upcoming orchid show/sale and receive a 50-percent discount on display advertising.”
Cost: ?
Time: ?
Contact: AOS

Outdoor Exhibit Top

The following is an excerpt from “About Orchids, A Chat By Frederick Boyle” written in 1893:

COOL ORCHIDS. This is a subject which would interest every cultured reader, I believe, every householder at least, if he could be brought to understand that it lies well within the range of his practical concerns. But the public has still to be persuaded. It seems strange to the expert that delusions should prevail when orchids are so common and so much talked of; but I know by experience that the majority of people, even among those who love their garden, regard them as fantastic and mysterious creations, designed, to all seeming, for the greater glory of pedants and millionaires. I try to do my little part, as occasion serves, in correcting this popular error, and spreading a knowledge of the facts. It is no less than a duty. If every human being should do what he can to promote the general happiness, it would be downright wicked to leave one's fellow-men under the influence of hallucinations that debar them from the most charming of quiet pleasures. I suspect also that the misapprehension of the public is largely due to the conduct of experts in the past. It was a rule with growers formerly, avowed among themselves, to keep their little secrets. When Mr. B.S. Williams published the first edition of his excellent book forty years ago, he fluttered his colleagues sadly. The plain truth is that no class of plant can be cultivated so easily, as none are so certain to repay the trouble, as the Cool Orchids.

It’s rather sad that 115 years later those words still ring true. The average plant enthusiast still considers orchids to be difficult to grow and unsuitable for growing outdoors. Here in Southern California, orchids in the garden are the exception rather than the rule.

It should be a primary responsibility of Southern California orchid societies to educate and inform people of the wide range of orchids that can be successfully grown outdoors year around.

In order to help fight the common misconception that all orchids require greenhouses it would be enlightening if people could see examples of orchids growing outdoors. All members of our society should have orchids growing on their trees...but the most ideal locations would be in our local botanical gardens. This is not without precedent as the San Diego Orchid Society helped mount orchids in trees at the Quail Botanical Gardens and the Santa Barbara Orchid Society helped mount orchids in trees at the Santa Barbara Zoo as well as at the San Diego Zoo.

We have several orchid societies in our area and several botanical gardens in our area and I’m sure that one orchid society would be able to donate enough orchids to mount in several trees. A drip system is not cost prohibitive…I set one up in my tree for probably less than $25. There would be some maintenance required but not much more maintenance than for the average sub-tropical plant. The benefit greatly outweighs the very minimal cost to the botanical garden and to the orchid society. For more information and pictures please see this thread on orchids at botanical gardens.
Cost: $100 for irrigation supplies
Time: One weekend and 4? days of maintenance per month.

Indoor Exhibit Top

Display orchid related items at a public library. Not sure how difficult it would be to get permission to set up a display. Another possibility would be to set up some type of orchids-mounted-on-potted-trees installation in a mall or other public place. For inspiration take a look at the living wall installations of Patrick Blanc. Click on "Walls" and then right click on the slide show and select "Zoom in". Many thanks to Melissa Kellogg of Sanctuary Gardens for sharing that website with me.
Cost: ??
Time: ??

Public Events Top

The orchid society should set up a booth at public plant shows and/or sales. Based on some observations, it seems that having orchids for sale attracts more people rather than just having a booth with some promotional fliers.

A list of local shows and sales will be added shortly.
Cost: ??
Time: ??

Radio Top

I called KCRW and they sent me some material on advertising on their station. For the same price, non-profits receive 30 seconds of air-time while for-profits receive 15 seconds. Ideally, all the local orchid societies that would benefit from the radio ad would split the cost. The trick would be to send listeners to an easily remembered web page where they could then find the orchid society nearest to them.
Cost: Cheapest is Weekend Rotator, $250 for Sat and Sun, 7AM to 10PM
Time: 3 hours to write a script and record it?
Contact: mia.fernandez

Miscellaneous Top

Orchid Vendors:Orchid societies are pretty good at increasing demand for orchids and directing potential customers to local orchid vendors…but is it a two way street? The last time you received a shipment of orchids did it contain a brochure for the orchid society nearest you? The last time you talked with an orchid vendor did they ask if you were a member of a local orchid society? It's mutually beneficial if orchid vendors and orchid societies work closely with each other.

What's interesting to consider is Trader Joe's effect on peoples' interest in orchids. Even though their selection is small compared to an orchid nursery, they sell quality orchids at surprisingly low prices. My guess is that just in terms of sheer volume they are selling more orchids than most, if not all, local orchid nurseries. What would be great is if people who purchased orchids from Trader Joes could learn about their local orchid society. Perhaps we could create some fliers that offered detailed care instructions for each of the orchids sold by Trader Joes. The fliers could be placed near the orchids. Or perhaps we could create a small sticker to place on each of the orchids. The sticker could say something like..."Bring this orchid to your local orchid society for free care instructions"..
Cost: ?
Time: ?
Contact: Your local Orchid Vendors

Be Friendly:I've read on the forums where people have attended orchid society meetings and not returned because the members were so unfriendly. It's not just members being unfriendly to visitors, it's also members being unfriendly to each other, even jokingly so, that can make a bad impression on visitors. Members should be aware of how they behave around visitors.

Before any members even have the opportunity to make a bad first impression, society leadership should proactively facilitate good first impressions by selecting the friendliest members to have the permanent responsibility of befriending visitors. Because making a good first impression is so important perhaps there should be some training involved. These friendly ambassadors are in fact the salespeople of the society and are instrumental in converting visitors to members.

How do the friendly ambassadors identify visitors? Most likely there should there be a sign in desk at the front entrance where visitors can be identified and given a visitor badge. This is where the visitors should also receive a welcome packet. After that, how is the visitor connected to an ambassador? What questions should the friendly ambassador ask? Should they ask the visitor if they have any specific questions about orchids? What selling points should they make? Should they give the visitor a tour of the meeting place? Which other members should they introduce the visitor to?

Attend Other Society Meetings:Society leaders should attend other orchid society meetings or plant society meetings and observe what works and what doesn't work. They should try and select societies where they don't already know people.
Cost: $0.00
Time: 2 hours

Reminders:Be kind remind. What if the orchid society didn't need to devote so much time and effort recruiting new members...they just needed to remind current members about upcoming meetings. Some society leaders might have a hard time with this concept, but, perhaps new members are not habituated to thinking in terms of 1st Sunday of the month or 2nd Tuesday of the month. New members might not be retired and they might not have their whole calendar planned out months in advance. They might be busy students working part time jobs with a hundred things on their minds.

Receiving a newsletter 2 weeks in advance of an upcoming meeting is certainly sufficient reminder for some members...but would some members appreciate reminders closer to upcoming meetings? Any kind of additional reminders would definitely be optional. Some possibilities would be a phone call, postcard or e-mail a few days before a meeting. Members would be able to opt out of the reminders at any time..
Cost: Variable
Time: Variable

Always Wear Your ur OSSC Badge:I’ve never worn a badge before and people’s eyes are really drawn to it. Members should wear their society badge whenever they go…be it church for regular service…or weddings or funerals…or bars, clubs…or botanical gardens. It’s a good conversation starter on what should hopefully be a favorite subject of ours.
Cost: $0.00
Time: However long you spend talking about the OSSC
Contact: The membership guy if you lost your badge.

OSSC T-shirts:Along the same lines as the OSSC badge. Must be tasteful, eye catching, thought provoking and memorable.
Cost: ?
Time:?

Value Added Top

Education:At the end of society meetings the Chair of Education should pass out a homework assignment and at the beginning of society meetings there should be a closed book quiz. Hmm…that was meant to be a humorous slight exaggeration but now that I think about it… it’s not a terrible idea. The homework assignment can be to read a specific article…copies of which can be passed out to members and/or available on the society’s website. The quiz can be based on the article and answers would be read right after the quizzes were turned in. Even if people did not read the article the answers would still be educational and people who scored high enough would receive raffle tickets.

However it’s accomplished, education needs to be a primary responsibility of the society. Relying on the presentation to educate members is not enough. Expecting members to learn on their own is not enough. The society should take an active role in the education of its members. Growing orchids successfully requires information and the more information we have, the more successful we will be at growing a wide variety of orchids.

Coordinate Group Purchases:Purchasing orchids is a fundamental aspect of being an orchid hobbyist. Orchids, like most goods, are available at a discount when they are purchased in bulk, but the average orchid hobbyist can’t afford to purchase enough orchids to receive bulk discounts. An orchid society, being a group of orchid hobbyists, is inherently capable of tapping the power of its numbers to coordinate group purchases that will provide its members a variety of greatly discounted orchids. There’s no logical reason why an orchid society member should pay full price for an orchid when that same orchid is available at a 50% discount.

Coordinating group purchases has several benefits:

Purchase more orchids for the same amount of money.
Learn together. When several orchid society members purchase the same species of orchid at the same time, they can compare notes to see how the same orchid responds to each of their different conditions.
Extra orchids can be used as bait to help lure orchid enthusiasts to society meetings.
If the extra orchids are available as soon as the society doors open, then it might address the problem of people not arriving early enough to help set up for the meeting.

On 6 November 08 I posted on ad on craigslist that included a link to our website and a list of 20 orchids along with their price. You can view a copy of the craigslist ad here. The actual ad is deleted 7 days after it is posted. The orchids listed were extra orchids from an Oakhill Group Purchase that we conducted. The only markup in the prices was to include shipping costs. The point was not to make money for the society but to entice orchid enthusiasts to attend a society meeting.

MOE:
Hits to our website: 24 over a period of 1 week
Visitors from craigslist: 4
New members: possibly 2

Orchid Vendor Discount:Receiving a reasonable discount at orchid nurseries would be a significant incentive for orchid enthusiasts to become members of their local orchid societies.

Local Botanical Garden Discount:It would be great if OSSC members could receive $5 off regular admission or $30 off becoming a member of the Huntington. Not only would it be an incentive for people to become members of the OSSC but it would be a good way to attract membership minded plant enthusiasts if on the Huntington’s membership page there was mention of members of the following plant societies receiving a discount. The benefit to the Huntington would be that on each of the participating orchid society's membership page would be a link back to the Huntington’s membership page.

A Few Reasons To Attend A Society Meeting Top

The following is a list of reasons why visitors should attend an orchid society meeting. It's addressed to potential visitors.

We promise not to embarrass you by making you stand up and introduce yourself.*
Opportunity to win orchids in our orchid raffle
Good selection of orchids available for purchase at wholesale prices
Learn about upcoming orchid shows and sales
Delicious refreshments
Ask our orchid experts any orchid related questions**
Learn about the wide variety of orchids that can be grown outdoors
Opportunity to share your orchid growing experience
Want to look through an orchid book before buying it? Chances are good that you can find it in our library.
See a wide variety of blooming orchids that our members bring in every meeting
Listen to informative presentations
Opportunity to make friends and meet interesting people from all walks of life
No funny hats, secret handshakes or square dancing

* It’s hard enough to walk into a room full of strangers who already know each other without having to speak up and address the entire society. It adds absolutely no value for the visitor. If you want to know a visitors name then go introduce yourself…smile and be friendly.

** There should be a table that is clearly marked “Orchid Questions”. Someone should be attending this table at all times (except during the presentation). They don’t need to have all the answers but they should be able to introduce the visitor to the person who might know the answer and/or the librarian who should know which book might contain the answer.